Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development
Articles, tips, and resources for WordPress-based development.
About a week ago, I shared a round up of posts that I thought made for some good reading during the downtime the holidays inevitably bring.
I also mentioned that I have a tendency to throw things into Pocket and leave them there until I have time to read them on my own. Whenever I come across a handful of really good WordPress articles, I’ve been saving them until I have enough to share here on the site.
One of the phrases many involved in software will likely hear (especially early in their career) is “Ship fast and iterate.”
And there’s definitely something to that when it’s been implemented correctly. But when I’ve watched others trying to adopt this idea when building something for WordPress, it seems like something gets lost in translation.
No, this is not a critique of other companies or developers. No, this is not saying that we’re all like this. No, this is not saying that I’m above this.
If anything, it’s a reflection on the idea and what it means for those of us who are building things on WordPress and how we may be more more mindful of the work that we’re doing.
In the admittedly short time I’ve worked in software development, I’ve rarely seen a site like GitHub have such a level of success especially for something as nerdy as version control.
Linktocat has always been one of my favorites.
Don’t get me wrong: Version Control is a must have for any serious software development shops – be it a single person or a team of people. But the fact the site works so well, has a variety of quality clients, and doesn’t look like, y’know, developers built the site is such a huge plus.
And as much as I love open source and what GitHub has brought us, I often see development shops asking users to report issues on GitHub whenever they see them.
That’s never sat well with me.
The thing is, even though GitHub looks good, even though it works well, and even though it does its job well at doing what it’s meant to do, it’s still targeting an audience that’s very rarely going to be our core audience.
During the holidays, most of us slow down a bit from what we’re used to doing every day so that we can actually hang out with friends and family or so that we can catch up on something we’ve waited a long time to do.
You know, like reading or a playing a game or something like that.
One of the things that I have a habit of doing is throwing a ton of content into Pocket and then planning to read it when I actually have time.
This past weekend, I had a couple of less-than-stellar exchanges as it relates to customer service, customer support, or whatever you’d like to call it.
Specifically, they were things that transpired with other unrelated businesses both of which got me thinking about the state of customer support in WordPress.
And since many of us are involved in WordPress-related businesses or are running shops in the industry, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the whole thing.
None of this is novel and it’s probably not particularly insightful. Just some things I observed and thought about while driving home (because, you know, who doesn’t think about WordPress when they aren’t WordPressing? :).
The purpose of this, though, isn’t to disparage anyone.
This post is about self-edification. It’s about sharing ideas for how we currently run our businesses and how we might be able to improve – both as customers and as businesses – moving forward.
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